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Always check more than one Auto Europe website!

Today I feel like I won a lottery or at least this is a very lucky day! In my email today were two emails from Auto Europe touting their current "sales". As we will be needing a car for our annual spring trip to Portugal and have booked our flights I thought I would take a look and see how the rates were going to be for this coming April.

First site was the UK one and it came up with 232 £ for a 29 day rental which is about $375 (without cc fees on that). When I opened the other email which then took me to the US site for booking I was given a rate of $835 for the same 29 days and it did not include the CDW which the UK site did include....same class of car, economy, 4dr with AC. Well you can imagine that as fast as I could I booked the 232 £ rate before it disappeared.

I have never seen such a huge disparity in their offers but this confirms that one must always check out their other sites like Auto Europe uk. or it. before bookings our rental.

I booked on the italian site which had the lowest rate for our trip to Italy this past fall. There is also an eu site that has lower rates. It definitely pays to check them all out. Used my US address and US credit card and had no problems with the booking online or picking the car up.

When you check the different country sites for AE, be sure to see what is included and not included in the rental insurance coverage. If rented through the Italian or Portuguese sites you are not able to waive the CDW regardless of the credit card you use, which means that your USA based credit card will not cover any damages to the car. EU residents have to show proof of insurance when picking up the car, Americans do not, when booking through the AE USA site as the credit card company covers the CDW requirement.

I just checked the cost of renting an Audi A4 in Portugal using the AE USA, Italy and Portugal websites and there was very little difference in the rental rate, a couple of Euros, but the major differences were the CDW coverage, liability coverage and fees. These rates are based on the different country agreements each rental agency has.

It's also interesting to note that the list of cars offered on the AE USA website, and those on the Italian and Portuguese sites are not the same. You cannot rent any FIAT on the American site, only the SEAT. And you can't rent a Volkswagen Passat on the Italian or Portuguese websites, only the Volkswagen Polo, VW’s smallest car.

After I saw such an incredibly low rate on the UK site I called AE in Maine, spoke to a very helpful employee. I had a question regarding a daily road tax one year we are slapped with just as we returned the car to the Lisbon airport (Avis rental) and hurrying to get into the terminal to check in. The woman told me to go ahead and book the rental, she was aware of the UK site and I had told her the price that came up. She told me to go ahead and book the rental on the UK site then call her so she could use the voucher number I would be given to confirm that there would be no daily road tax to be paid at the end of the rental. In used my US issued cc. As this offer came through a special email offer I am not sure if I would get the same price by going directly to the UK site.....which I will do tonight.

After many years of travel to Portugal and other European countries I have found that the cars one encounters on different sites is representative of what you will rent. You only are assured number of doors, fuel type, AC.....not the exact make and model.....only a class of car. No matter which site we use twice a year and whatever car they show as representative of the rental we usually never get that make and model but whatever is on hand that fits the class, doors etc. Once in Italy it was explained as to why this was the system....too difficuly to control each and every make/model request that they would get for each rental.

Robert...your reply got me a bit nervous so I just went of the UK site, put in my rental dates got the same rate of 232 £ for 29 ays including VAT,liability , fire, CDW with excess, theft and unlimited miles. Am I missing something?

CDW with excess means a deductible. When renting from Autoeurope in the states, one can waive the CDW and have it carried by your Visa card with no deductible, at least that is the case with my card.

I have always started looking at the European branches of Autoeurope because of claims of lower rates. I have always found that other restrictions occur: a deductible and at times limited mileage, and the longer the rental, the lower the daily mileage allowance. I give my rental costs in my trip reports, but it is only for 20 days at a time because my Visa card will not carry the CDW for more than 31 days. So I do two rentals back to back. My recollection is that I pay about $23 per day on my rentals, but they are the smallest cars available and come with standard shift.